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Home , Houston Grand Opera, Jamie Barton, Los Angeles Opera

Bon Appétit!A MUSICAL MONOLOGUE MUSIC BY LEE HOIBY TEXT BY JULIA CHILD, ADAPTED BY MARK SHULGASSER

Performed in English

7:30 P.M. CT |NOVEMBER 27 Available on demand through December 26 Bon Appétit!

Background Cast

Lee Hoiby’s one-woman, one-act Bon Julia Child ‡ Appétit! premiered in 1989 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, with Jean Stapleton performing the role ‡ Former Studio artist of Julia Child. It was presented as a curtain raiser for Hoiby’s The Italian Lesson, also a musical monodrama. Creative Team The Story Pianist Jonathan Easter* Co-Directors Ryan McKinny ‡ Bon Appétit is a conflation of two episodes of Julia and Tonya McKinny * Child’s cooking show, The French Chef, in which she narrates—with all her wit, antics, and charisma—the * Houston Grand Opera debut baking of the perfect chocolate cake, Le gâteau au ‡ Former Houston Grand Opera Studio artist chocolat l’éminence brune. The entire staff of HGO contributed to the success of this production. For a full listing of the company’s staff, Fun Fact please visit HGO.org/about-us/people.

Houston favorite, HGO Studio alumna, and beloved Performing artists, stage directors, and choreog- mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton portrays Child in a role raphers are represented by the American Guild of she has made her own, performing in venues including Musical Artists, the union for opera professionals in New York’s Carnegie Hall. the United States.

Underwriters Video and Audio Production Streaming Partner Produced in association Jennifer and Benjamin Fink Keep the Music Going Productions with Austin Opera Bon Appétit!

RYAN MCKINNY Richard Tucker Award, both Main and Song Prizes at the BBC Cardiff (United States) Singer of the World Competition, National Council CO-DIRECTOR Auditions, and a Grammy nominee. In recognition of her iconic HGO Studio alumnus Ryan McKinny also performance at the Last Night of the Proms, Barton was named 2020 co-directed and appeared in the HGO Digital Personality of the Year at the BBC Music Magazine Awards. She production Vinkensport. His past performances appears regularly at HGO, most recently in Donizetti’s La favorite as for HGO include his role debut as Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni Léonor (2020), Bellini’s Norma as Adalgisa (2018), Wagner’s Ring (2019); Gunther in Götterdämmerung (2017); and Donner in Das cycle as Waltraute/Second Norn in Götterdämmerung (2017), and as Rheingold, Escamillo in Carmen, and the title role in (all Fricka in (2014) and Die Walküre (2015). This season, in 2014). The 2019–20 season saw McKinny make his role and Barton is slated to appear with Dallas Opera as Eboli in Don Carlo, house debut at the as Joseph De Rocher in Dallas Symphony Orchestra in a program of Verdi favorites, Orchestre and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking, featuring a de Paris in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, and the London Philharmonic new production by Leonard Foglia, before performing at Washington Orchestra for that same composer’s Resurrection Symphony. National Opera and returning to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as the Following a duo recital with soprano at Seattle Opera, title role in Don Giovanni. He has appeared at the Metropolitan Barton embarks on a recital tour with composer Jake Heggie, with Opera (Biterolf in Tannhäuser, Speaker in , Kothner appearances with Cal Performances in Berkeley, Schubert Club in St. in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Lieutenant Ratcliffe in Billy Paul, and Tucson’s Desert Song Festival. Barton’s debut solo album, Budd); Dutch National Opera (debut in Pierre Audi’s production of All Who Wander, featuring songs by Mahler, Dvorak, and Sibelius, ); Opera (Count Almaviva in The Marriage of earned the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award. Unexpected Figaro, Stanley Kowalski to Renée Fleming’s Blanche DuBois in Shadows, her new album of music by Jake Heggie, has just been Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Leone in Handel’s Tamerlano released on the Pentatone label. with Plácido Domingo, and Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville); (Oppenheimer in Doctor Atomic and Jokanaan in Salome); Washington National Opera; Staatstheater Wiesbaden; JONATHAN EASTER English National Opera; Semperoper Dresden; Hamburg State Opera; (United States) Deutsche Oper Berlin; Deutsche Oper am Rhein; Teatro Colón; and PIANO many other companies. Known for his musicality and expressivity across multiple instruments, Jonathan Easter TONYA MCKINNY is increasingly sought after as a collaborative (United States) organist and pianist. As a collaborative artist, Easter has performed CO-DIRECTOR at the American Choral Directors Association and American Guild of Organist conventions at the Regional and National levels. He Co-founder of Keep the Music Going also performs regularly with the Atlanta Master Chorale and Emory Productions, Tonya McKinny served as University’s Concert Choir as their Accompanist and Assistant co-director, co-writer, and director of photog- Conductor. As an organist, Easter has performed solo and collabo- raphy for the recent short film Glimmerglass Lieder, produced by the rative recitals at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church; Jacoby Glimmerglass Festival and starring Ryan McKinny. This season she Symphony Hall in Jacksonville, Florida; the Cathedral-Basilica of is co-producer of a new opera experience with On Site Opera in New Saint Augustine; and Spivey Hall. He can be heard on multiple CDs York City, scheduled to debut in the spring of 2021. McKinny has with the Atlanta Master Chorale, University of North Florida Chamber acted in several Off-Off-Broadway productions, taught masterclasses Singers, and an upcoming album with trumpet players from around for the University of Hawaii, and served as personal acting coach for the country. Easter has had the pleasure of collaborating with Jamie numerous singers. Barton on several occasions, including a collaborative recital to help Barton prepare for the 2013 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, the 2020 Metropolitan Opera Gala, and a recital with Seattle Opera. JAMIE BARTON Easter currently serves as Director of Fine Arts and Organist at Saint (United States) Mark United Methodist Church in Atlanta. MEZZO-SOPRANO—JULIA CHILD

HGO Studio alumna Jamie Barton is the winner of the Artist Award and